Cassandra at the Wedding

Cassandra at the Wedding

By Dorothy Baker

Cassandra Edwards is a graduate student at Berkeley: gay, brilliant, nerve-racked, miserable. At the beginning of this novel, she drives back to her family ranch in the foothills of the Sierras to attend the wedding of her identical twin, Judith, to a nice young doctor from Connecticut. Cassandra, however, is hell-bent on sabotaging the wedding.

This was not at all what I would have picked out for this prompt (although I suppose wedding planning books don't really "include" weddings, just every other goddamn detail about them) but it was an easy enough read.  I was initially surprised to see it had originally been published back in 1962, since everyone's attitude seemed so modern, but it did devolve into that breezy, California-dreamin' sixties-period Didion flavor.  I feel fully qualified to speak on it, since I read one whole chapter of Play It As It Lays.

I don't think the blurb is exactly right either, since Cassandra is more bent on sabotaging her own life than the wedding.  Not to spoil anything but she takes a bunch of pills when she finds out her sister Judith won't let Cassandra break up with Judith's fiance (on Judith's behalf, this isn't that modern). I'm catching up on reviews, so I've already read Fangirl and I've been going on about co-dependency there too (I only just realized both books involve co-dependent twin sisters, although Judith is considerably more stable than Wren, and Cassandra considerably less so than Cath) but talk about co-dependency!  You try to commit suicide because your sister plans to get married?! Whoa!  So I guess, yes, that is the ultimate sabotage, but in the end (more spoilers!) once Cassandra wakes up again, she seems more or less like a new person: pleasant, accommodating, and not at all displeased to be a bridesmaid (even though Judith's already married, and do you think that's ever going to come up again: "Oh right, when you were committing your very dramatic tantrum, we just up and got married because we thought you might cause a scene. How right we were!").

This is much more of a character study than a plot-heavy book - people are heavily described, and most of the action takes place around the pool.  So for all that it was published almost 60 years ago, it does feel relatively fresh since there's not much that would be different nowadays, except that they would have used a cell phone to call the therapist.  And apparently, weird twin sister relationships are still causing drama even now, so it's very prescient.  I (more spoilers, but only for my thoughts, not anything really important) didn't really like Cath in Fangirl - I feel like she just replaced one co-dependent relationship with another, and while Cassandra clearly has more trouble managing herself, I wasn't as frustrated with her, maybe because while, yes, as melodramatic and "extra" as her suicide attempt was, she seems less helpless.  I mean, she did plan out her potential death (and I'm not sure if we're supposed to be reading into it this way, but I always figured she wasn't planning to die based on her calculating the pills to take) but by golly, at least she had a plan.  Cath seems content to simply wait for things to happen to her - and occasionally bewail the happening.

Anyway, Cassandra is a nice little trip through the California countryside for a June weekend.  It's a good length - any longer and I think you'd start disliking the characters again. Anyway, aside from the abrupt right turn at the end wherein everyone seems to be capable of living happily ever after, even though nothing to that point would indicate that as a possibility, it was still a nice palate cleanser.  A sort of lemony-sharp cocktail.

34: A Book That Includes A Wedding